There are 1470 comments on the
latimesblogs.latimes.com
story from Nov 5, 2010, titled Ex-BART officer Mehserle sentenced to two years in prison for fatal shooting of unarmed man.
In it, latimesblogs.latimes.com reports that:

A former transit police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed man on an Oakland train station platform was sentenced by a Los Angeles judge Friday to two years in prison.

Ok, I must say, I am sooooo tired of people pulling the race card. Do I believe he is guilty? Yes I do. Do I believe it was racialy motivated.....no I don't.That being said, If I rememeber correctly, he had pulled is gun at least twice. That tells me he knew exaclty where is gun was.I do not think 2 years is long enough. I don't beleive he got a lighter sentence because it was a white/black thing. I think he got a lighter sentence because it was a COP thing. Cops can do no wrong. Even when it is caught on tape...plain as day, Cops can do no wrong and are rarley held to the same standards that the civilian public is. Seems that if you are a Cop, you are handed a "free get out of jail card" as soon as you get out of the acadamy.Cand I just remind people, there were people of ALL RACES at the demenstrations to support Oscar. It was not only the African American people. We were all there and serveral of us support the Grant family.It is 2010......can we get over the damn race thing already????

and a war prisoner of usa- an innocent teenager, who likely threw a grenade in Afghanistan blindly or it can be that he did not throw it but he was tortured by us-militaries, war criminals from usa and forced to say it, got sentence 40 years in prison. How is it, u-ss-a?

<quoted text>"A longer sentence will not change or fix anything--it would just be revenge and that's not what justice is supposed to be about."Really, a "2 years sentence" for taking a life is NOT Justice period! I wonder how the judge or a jury member would feel if this had happen to a family member...How would you feel? It's not justice period.

I was trying to be reasonable instead of emotional. I see that approach fails with some people.

I never said I agreed with the sentence, but it is what was decided by the Judge in a court of law. He could have given him probation. He knew that was out of the question. I was expecting at least a 4-7 year sentence and thought that's what he deserved, not as revenge but as a just sentence for the crime. The doubt was clearly with Mesherle's INTENT, not that he killed Oscar Grant. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter based on the trial, his own testimony, and the decision of the jury.

It's a done deal now. He'll get out in less than two years, appear on Oprah, probably write a book, and then you can go see the movie.

Whether he does two years of 20 will not undo the loss of this young man and the pain it caused his family.

The media along with some of the usual trouble making idiots in Oakland created a circus out of this like they always do, and turned it into yet another race issue. That card has been played until the spots are faded on it.

If it had happened to my son, I would be devastated by the loss of my son and cope as best I could, but I would also realized that no amount of protesting, rioting, anger, looting, or further violence would change a goddamned thing.

I hope this guy makes it past two MONTHS. An ex-cop, a white ex-cop, a white ex-cop who killed a black man, a white ex-cop who killed an unarmed black man, a white ex-cop who killed an unarmed black man by shooting him in his back.

Bookies are laying bets on this. There's probably money sitting on every day this guy will be in the joint as to his survival.

Only in America. I am not surprised. I absolutely believe if the victim would have been white and Mehserle black the out come would have been severe. Punishment was determined for Mehserl,e was determined on his white skin. What color is his heart? or his soul?

White man with hate in his heart for a black man. The white man came to this land with a sense of self-entitlement. He brought over the black man against there will as the white man was to lazy to work for his own food. White man attempted to exterminate the Indians as he was threatened by there wisdom. White man you will reap what you have sowed. Your greed, your hate for the planet and its inhabitants will surely not go unpunished.

THis was never a race issue and had nothing to do with race. Mesherle was a rookie poorly trained cop, grant was a criminal with a criminal record, fighting in public and not cooperating with police. Bart cop made a mistake, are we going to start prosecuting all cops for their mistakes, this is the downfall of society. It was has been an unjust system, grant was a dirtbag plain and simple

Hopefully people will keep their cool and realize that no amount of outrage, violence, trashing business, looting or rioting will bring Oscar Grant back. It will only hurt Oakland and make people look disfavorably on the people of Oakland.We don't really know for sure what went through Mehserle's mind the instant he pulled the gun instead of the Taser. He has to live with what he did no matter how much time he serves. A longer sentence will not change or fix anything--it would just be revenge and that's not what justice is supposed to be about.

Most of the folks that riot do so for the loot. It would be nice if the cops had some real thugs to shoot at. Probably won't happen, cops have a lot of trouble dealing with armed victims.

The family of the man who was shot deserves a settlement for several million dollars. The Oakland Subway Police Department failed to properly train this police officerNow, let's talk about the criminal side of things...Although this police officer and his department were negligent and caused the death of this man, there was no CRIMINAL intent to intentionally kill this man. He was poorly trained and in a panic. He intended to reach for his "tazer" and grabbed his gun instead.I am not saying he should have not been allowed to carry a tazer, but if he had never been issued a tazer, would he have shot this man? NOThis was not a murder. This was a very unfortunate accident. He was given two years to keep the Black community from rioting.Now we have created a second victim

........And one thing for sure, you'll never see a white riot for anything. In this country anyway!

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